


The Hollow Woman

by AtMyHeartsDesire



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:21:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25016146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtMyHeartsDesire/pseuds/AtMyHeartsDesire
Summary: "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."Tales of demons and monsters have firmly placed themselves in the books of mythology. Only, they aren't myths.Whilst searching for an understanding of herself, Rose Wesley must face trials and hurdles to save her best friends and perhaps - her lover?
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. The Dementor on the Train

From the small, frameless train window, Rose watched as her parent’s hands – raised in farewell – disappear as the smoke from the train gently evaporated into the autumn air. With a sigh she allowed a brief sour sensation to cross her tongue. Homesickness. She swallowed the emotion opting for Gryffindor courage and turned her attention to the train’s narrow corridor. The train was packed full of life, but you had to search for it. Separated in compartments made from wooden panels held the excitement and trepidation of students preparing themselves for another year at Hogwarts. As Rose walked down the art deco corridor, she noted the signs of students eager to show off their newly acquired skills. She barely dodged a firebolt that came flying from a compartment as another student ran after their familiar, shouting it back. She passed two more compartments before finding her brother: Hugo. 

The sight of her brother had surprised her. She had expected to find him with Albus and Scorpius, but he was alone staring out the large window now covered in a misty haze. The sound of the glass door clicking open did nothing to stir the boy from his daydream.   
“Hey.” Came the soft gruff tones of an adolescent teen. Rose plonked herself across from her brother and copied his stature entirely: arms folded, head resting against the window frame. Only Rose looked at her brother as he continued to stare out onto a wet and miserable London. Eventually, Hugo’s eyes shifted, and a small smile twitched in the corner of his mouth. As the sour sensation once surpassed bubbled back onto Rose’s tongue, she asked if he was okay.  
“O.W.L.S.” Was Hugo’s only reply. He had been worried about his exams all summer, trying his best not to procrastinate but the makeshift quidditch pitch at the Weasley’s proved all too tempting.   
“You’ll be fine,” Rose started as Albus walked into the compartment, “Remember who your mum is?” This received a small chuckle from both men. Albus threw himself down next to Hugo and pulled him into a playfully tight headlock only to rub his knuckles against the younger man’s fiery ginger hair.   
“Cheer up, ya miserable bugger!” Albus mumbled through gritted teeth before letting go. As the energy settled, Rose turned her attention to the book beside her: _Defence Against the Dark Arts: N.E.W.T Addition_. Albus’ face scrunched in mock disapproval.   
“N.E.W.T’s are next year Rosie.” Sadistic sarcasm littering his voice. Rose simply licked her finger, turned the page to accompany the words _I wanted a head start_. Christ, she sounded like her mother, she thought to herself. 

If she thought that would be enough to satisfy Albus, she was right. However, it was not enough to appease the blonde-haired, grey-eyed man who was now dumping himself beside Rose and wrapping an arm around her.   
“Lick that finger again and call me KFC.” The lusty lyrical layered voice of Scorpius Malfoy suffocated the small compartment. Rose immediately began to push out of his grasp, but the man had sprouted muscles over the summer and easily ceased her futile attempt at escape.   
“Indulge me?” Even though it came as a question Rose was certain, that with the gruff attitude and silky voice, it was a demand. Her breath catches in her throat. She wished she had never taken him to that blasted chicken place now. He caused the biggest scene over the menu she had ever seen and was frankly like a child. Rose ended up ordering for him and promising herself to never take him to a muggle-centric location ever again.   
“You’re disgusting.” Rose replied failing to hide her smirk.

After Albus had declared that both were to get a room the compartments mood lifted into discussions of their respective travels over the summer and what they hoped would happen this year. Hugo seemed to cheer up the more the group began to discuss his try-outs for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.  
“Slytherin are deffo gonna win this year.” Albus proclaimed. Scorpius agreed, both high fiving. Hugo played their hopes down. Most of the journey continued just like that: a constant backwards and forwards, only Rose was far too intrigued by the textbook to entertain any conversation. Even if it did give her a cover to sneak a few glances at Scorpius’ lean, muscular body. 

Dusk drew its close as the dusty purples and sleepy reds that once coloured the sky dissipated into the night's thick dark blue blanket. As the train continued onto the Highlands of Scotland, Rose took time to admire the small smattering of lights coming from a small sleepy village. The weather outside had cleared up as if the rain in London had never happened and summer still reigned supreme amongst the incoming autumn season. She sighed as she reminisced about her past summer. Especially the nights. Lying on the dry, coarse grass of a random field staring up onto the night sky. Sometimes with Damian Hollingsworth, a rather forgettable boy she’d had an on and off relationship with for the past year, but she always preferred it without him. He was rather pushy and always jumping to the sex with hardly any thought for her or her pleasure. Rose was beginning to accept this aspect of womanhood, though she rather found it an amusing, sad metaphor for her whole experience as a woman: she would always have to do things herself. 

Rose turned, attempting to get comfortable when she was confronted with the sight of Scorpius Malfoy drooling on himself. She’d have to tell him that when he woke up. She struggled to gain Albus’ attention, his eyes rigidly fixed on the carpeted floor. This was when Rose realised something was up. Albus was never normally one for self-contemplation, she doubts he could spell it. "  
"Carpet that interesting?” Rose whispered, teasingly. Her doubts where only confirmed when, after expecting a quick slap from Albus’ witty tongue, he sighed barely lifting his grassy green eyes to meet hers. He nodded to the narrow corridor and slowly lifted himself from his seat, being careful not to wake either Scorpius or Hugo. Rose followed him out, her eyebrows firmly furrowed. 

The compartment door shut with a soft click. Albus looked up only to be met with a face of extreme confusion and worry. 

“It’s probably nothing-” Albus began unsure of how to address his concerns out loud, “Dad’s scar has been hurting recently.” He managed to breathe out. Rose took a moment to register the comment. Her eyes softened; however, her face remained firm with concern.  
“You think someone’s planning something.” Not a question. A statement. Albus nodded. It wasn’t the first time they had experienced something like this. Their first year, which they had hoped would be uneventful, was packed by a series of dramatic events caused by a time turner.   
They both paused, staring at each other as if searching for comment. That’s when they felt it. The intense cold swept over them as though they had jumped into a frozen Scandinavian lake. Albus exhaled, shaggily, the water vapor in his breath freezing and then quickly disappearing into the air.   
“We must be in Scotland.” Albus joked, deadpan. Rose hummed as if entertaining the idea.   
“I overheard Dad a few nights back,” Albus started, “They don’t know what’s happening. All I know is that the ministry has sent Auror’s out to investigate something.” Albus struggled to continue talking as the cold increased it’s holding on the duo. Rose had become so fixated on staying warm that she barely noticed the dark windows of the train freeze over.   
“What are they investigating?” She managed to ask. Albus shook his head, he hadn’t heard that part. Rose pondered aloud whether Albus thought it might be -   
“No,” Came the quick reply, “It can’t be him.” Rose nodded and suggested that dark magic sympathisers may be plotting once again. This was only met with an anxious sigh. Rose didn’t know what to say or to do. She felt, for once in her life, useless. Rose opened her mouth about to tell Albus that everything would work out in the end, but before she got the chance to, the light above them began to buzz and flicker. They both watched in complete curiosity. Tonight was the strangest of nights.   
“Why don’t we go back inside.” Once again, not a question. A statement. 

If they had expected the compartment to be toastie warm, they were sorely mistaken. Scorpius was stirring out of his nap whilst Hugo, somehow, had the greatest tolerance to the temperature. Rose looked out of the frosty window. She intuitively knew where she was: Glenfinnan Viaduct. They were only a few miles away from Fort William. From Hogwarts. She sat back, relaxing, and told the two men that they were almost there. When suddenly, the train jolted to a stop. The entire compartment shifted forwards as if it had smashed into a boulder. Books and small personal bags flew across the small space causing Hugo to wake in a moment of blind panic. After the screeching of the breaks fell silent the entire train was left in boundless stillness. The cold had increased its icy grip allowing the frightened rigid breaths to fill the space.  
“Why have we stopped?” Scorpius was the first to break the tense hush. Before anyone could return a response the light above the four teens flickered erratically, until they were left in silence. 

Hugo crept towards the window peering outside. He could see dark figures encroaching on the train. Unable to possess a clam thread of thought, he announced the revelation to the group. The trio glanced at each other. The last time they were in trouble sheer dumb luck was on their side, but now, at this moment, they felt completely useless. As the train jolted violently once more, four pairs of terrified eyes slowly turned to the dark hooded figure floating outside their compartment door. A deathly sensation filled the booth. Rose stared as the creature floated past the door. She slowly crept forwards, quickly locking the glass panelled door. Allowing relief to coarse through her veins, Rose rested her forehead on the icy glass – closing her eyes to calm her erratic heartbeat. 

She opened her eyes. The creature stood looking down at her. Rose jumped back in fear as a fateful sound filled the vast silence. 

_Click_. 

The door to the compartment unlocked as a barebone hand clasping the door, pulling it open. Rose crawled backwards until her head hit the wooden wall. Rose felt all her happiness drain from her as though it was being sucked from her very being. Sadness and despair created a vacuum of depression that swirled around the dark, hooded skeletal figure. Rose ransacked her brain, her memories, she must have seen the creature in a book before. The creature began to survey the teens in the room. Sizing each of them up. It seemed to be looking for something and it found it in Albus. The hooded creature leaned close to a terrified Albus who was as still as a vole that had been caught by an owl. 

Dark hooded figure. Deathly cold. An uncaring, non-discriminate sadness. Placing the three solid facts together, Rose knew what the creature was. 

Rose stood, pulled her wand out from her jeans, and aimed at the Dementor. She cried out _Expecto Patronum_ , but nothing happened. She tried again. Nothing. She looked at Albus, who was falling unconscious, as the Dementor drew close to his lips. Despair filled her entire body. She looked over to Scorpius who was watching her with those intense grey eyes of his. Suddenly a fire lit within Rose: happiness. The memory of their first date crossed her mind. She could remember it precisely. The two young first years running, hand in hand, towards the Great Hall. The smell of breakfast filling the air. Crusty bread rolls, sweet preserves, and tea. They sat at the end of the Gryffindor table ignoring the stares as the two young lovers chatted excitedly. Rose tightened her grip on her wand. Keeping the memory in her mind she allowed it to fill her stomach. A warm tingling sensation coursed through her veins.   
“Expecto Patronum!” She cried once more. A thick, shapeless cloud of sliver mist spews out from the end of her wand. The Dementor tries to fight the barrier created by the charm, to no avail. The creature backs away as though the charm was causing it immense discomfort. As the Dementor flew away, the compartment door locked with a click, leaving Rose breathless as Albus stared ahead of him ghost white. 

Reclaiming her breath, Rose locked onto those evasive grey pools once more reliving the sweet memory once more. Only to remember why they broke up and why they could never be together – no matter how hard they tried. 


	2. A Stark Warning

The train rocked and vibrated as it continued along the tracks. It was as if nothing had happened, which is what it looked like on the exterior; a normal Jacobite steam train tumbling through mountain ranges so beautiful in their vastness and emptiness that they looked like they had been carved by the Gods themselves. Inside the train, however, it was a different story.

Albus still sat, silent, staring intensely at the wooden wall opposite him. Scorpius lay a hand on his friend’s thigh to shake him from his shock. His further attempts, such as the one, also failed. Numerous thoughts travelled through Rose’s head like a bull charging at a Matador. What can she do to ease him out of his shock? What was a Dementor doing away from Azkaban? She had no idea they commanded such power. Such power of demoralising destructive depression. She remembered the bone-breaking cold. She almost became fixated on the word: cold.

Chill, cold, freeze, frozen, freezing – frozen to the bone. Albus was frozen. So, the answer was warmth? Warm? To thaw? Hot, boiling, mild. Red-hot or soul hot? Could a soul be hot? If it could be hot, then surely it can be cold. How to warm up a soul? What is good for the soul? Good? Good comfort? Good food? Food! Glorious food!

She had her answer.

She rummaged through her small bag adorned with beads but found nothing satisfactory. Then she remembered Hugo getting confused with the difference between pound coins and pound notes in the middle of a WHSmith’s.   
“Did you eat that Galaxy?” Hugo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the question but nevertheless shook his head no. Rose outstretched her hand.   
“It’s hardly the time for a snack.” Scorpius whipped sardonically, though a tone of confusion knitted his words. Hugo took out the large chocolate bar and handed it to his sister. She snapped a chunk off, receiving an oppositional chorus of _Hey’s!_ from the fiery-haired boy.

Repositioning herself in front of Albus, Rose wafts the piece of brown velvety goodness under his nose. Pulling away in slight surprise, Albus gingerly took the chocolate from Rose.   
“Eat. You’ll feel better.” She stated. She almost sounded like a teacher. Albus took a bite. He instantly reaped soul-saving rewards.   
“What was that…thing?” He asked between bites.   
“A Dementor from Azkaban.” Again, how she sounded like a professor. The three boys looked like they had come to some ground-breaking realisation.   
“They’re real?” Hugo questioned. Dementors had been at the forefront of their scary bedtime stories. They were like the bogyman of the wizarding world and presumed by the younger generations of witches and wizards to be a myth, just as Hulder was. No one believed that she was lurking in the middle of a forest, waiting for lost wanderers to cross her path.   
“I didn’t think they exist anymore.” Rose stated gaining a question of her intelligence form Scorpius.   
“I’ll speak to mum.” She finished. Before the others could offer their thoughts, the train’s whistle screamed it’s high-pitched solitary shrill. They were approaching the station.

Rose, in a show of how British she was, slapped her thighs called out _Right_ and stood to make for the compartment door.   
“Where you off to?” Scorpius asked, his voice just as velvety as the chocolate melting in Albus’ hand, and just like the chocolate, she melted too, for a moment. Rose turned to find Scorpius’ eyes full of yearning and longing; she almost found herself wondering what would happen if he were to follow.   
“To get changed,” She stated lowly as if to suggest he was to follow her into the toilets, “We’re almost there.” Rose finished, dejecting the wicked thoughts in her mind as she opened the door and left – leaving Scorpius wanting to follow.

***

Rose revelled in the brisk autumn wind as she pressed further along a semi-dry mud path towards the castle. She walked ahead as Scorpius started talking about Sarah Silverman and Carmen Cadiz, two Slytherin sixth years who had occupied the eyes, minds, and groans of her two friends last year. They’d just started the year and she already had to listen to the perverted minds of men yet to mature. Salvation was seen in the form of a carriage. Rose really couldn’t be arsed walking anymore.

As they approached the carriage, Rose’s heart sunk to her stomach when she saw the two girls inside: Sarah and Carmen. They cooed and called the boys over with their sickly-sweet voices. Rose imitated their voices climbing into the carriage – she could have done without this. The two boys jumped on and immediately bee-lined to sit across from the girls who were now twirling their hair in their thinly long fingers. Sarah smiled lushly as Carmen pursed her lips blinking so gently, they resembled butterfly wings. Something twisted in Rose’s chest as she watched the boys fall under their magnificent spell. Twisting and turning like the girl’s hair. Her entire body winced in a mournful bitter sadness – if her body could talk it would sound like a Duduk.

Rose mourned what might have been, which, by all the aspects of life to mourn, is arguably the hardest. The could have, should have, would haves. The what ifs. What if. What. If. The notions circled her mind like a cruel mistress imprisoning her capabilities and senses, forcing her to watch. To watch someone she once loved flirt with another. To mourn a loss is hard enough, she thought, but to mourn the loss of something you never truly had: what a pain to bare witness.

Rose was so quick to jump down from the carriage it had hardly stopped before her feet touched the stone floor of the courtyard. Albus popped an eyebrow in suspicion. The mixed group walked into the castle as Rose decided to take a detour to Professor Longbottom who marked their names off on a register.

“Evening Miss. Weasley. How are the parents?” He sounded cheery, Rose noted, perhaps he didn’t know about the Dementor on the train.   
“They’re good, Mum send’s her regards…Professor?” Neville looked up from his clipboard, his eyes wide. As he waited for Rose’s question, Rose couldn’t help but ask herself whether he owns multiple copies of the same brown corduroy pants, as well as his checkered oxford shirt and his beige knitted sweater.  
“Is this about the Dementor?” He asked as Rose opened her mouth, eyes on the ground. So, he did know. Word travels fast in the muggle world, but even more so in this one. Rose nodded and shoved her hands into her pockets; somehow, she couldn’t shift the image of Scorpius with Carmen.   
“I’m sorry you saw that Miss. Weasley,” The professor’s voice was monotone and dry, it almost sounded like a rehearsed response. “But I must query – how did you know that spell?”   
“Restricted section of the library.” Rose stated oh so matter of fact.

Professor Longbottom outstretched a hand gesturing _walk with me_. They walked side by side, both looking straight ahead. A tense silence befell the duo. They approached the entrance to the castle slowly like two tigers hunting down their prey. The professor stopped his face complicated with a decision being made. A sigh slipped from his lips. He had made up his mind.   
“You’re an intelligent girl Miss. Weasley,” The professor said with absolute authority, Rose couldn’t help but smirk at the comment, “And you more than anyone are aware of who you’re parents are, but more importantly; who they were.” The professor stops just as Rose’s heartbeat began to quicken. Was the professor still in an internal battle?   
“You mustn’t repeat what I am about to say.” His eyes turned dark with gravity. Rose had never seen the man as serious as he was now. She swears, unsure whether she wanted to hear what the professor had to say at all.   
“There is talk amongst the animals in the forbidden forest,” that wasn’t good, “about a new threat. A new evil rising from the deepest depths of the forest.” Rose’s face contorted into an image of confusion. Nothing was making sense. She only had one question.   
“Was it Ministry controlled? The Dementor?”   
“I don’t know. Just promise me you won’t go looking for danger?” There was the warning.

“Professor? Why would I got looking for something that wants to harm me?” Was all Rose could say to appease Professor Longbottom before she took her leave an entered the Great Hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this chapter, please comment and leave Kudos - they really mean the world! 
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a work of Fan Fiction using the characters from the world of Harry Potter, which is trade marked by J.K. Rowling. All the characters used are created and solely owned by J.K. Rowling, and I do not claim ownership over them or the world of Harry Potter. The Story I tell here about Scorpius and Rose is of my own invention, and is not purported or believed to be part of J.K Rowling's story cannon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line. I am grateful to Ms. Rowling for her story line, otherwise this piece of work and many others like it would not be exist.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a story that I wrote some years back on a different account and abandoned...because I forgot. So instead of updating it, I decided to edit the story and re-post on a new account. I hope you have enjoyed the first chapter of a new and improved story line. 
> 
> If you liked this chapter, please comment and leave Kudos - they really mean the world. 
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a work of Fan Fiction using the characters from the world of Harry Potter, which is trade marked by J.K. Rowling. All the characters used are created and solely owned by J.K. Rowling, and I do not claim ownership over them or the world of Harry Potter. The Story I tell here about Scorpius and Rose is of my own invention, and is not purported or believed to be part of J.K Rowling's story cannon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line. I am grateful to Ms. Rowling for her story line, otherwise this piece of work and many others like it would not be exist.


End file.
